"Nice work Riku!"
The Japanese bench celebrated, clapping in response to the picture perfect base hit.
Since there were only around 800-1000 members in the crowd, there wasn't much reception or ambiance. However, no one seemed to care at this point.
"I didn't know Riku was so good. After all, didn't his team lose to you in the finals?" Aki asked Ken as he scratched his shaved head.
Both Hiroki and Ken looked at Aki as if he was an idiot.
"Did you not watch the finals or something?"
"Eh, not really." He responded half-heartedly.
Hiroki was the one who chose to respond, sending a glare to Aki. "Riku's team might have lost, but he hit every ball that we threw at him. He was the only reason that the scores were so close by the end."
Ken nodded. He had been in the dugout for the whole match and every time Riku was in the batters box, his blood pressure would soar.
"If they had another batter with even half the skill of Riku, we would have been relegated to 2nd place." Ken admitted.
"Ah, I see." Aki picked his nose, having lost interest in the conversation.
Hiroki's eyebrow twitched, yet he received a pat on the shoulder from Ken who showed his condolences. Ken felt even sorrier for his friend, knowing that he and Aki were roommates.
"Do you think they'll let me switch rooms?" Hiroki muttered to Ken pleadingly.
Ken shook his head, "Sorry man, probably not."
"Haaaah." Hiroki let out a big sigh.
"Wait, shouldn't you be warming up?" Ken said after a moment.
"A-Ah crap."
It was only now that he noticed a pair of eyes drilling into his back.
"C-Coming!"
Hiroki quickly ran over and grabbed his helmet and bat, only to be chastised lightly by Chris.
"Get your head in the game Hiroki."
"Yes sir!"
Seeing the interaction between the two, Ken held back a laugh.
'I should probably tell Daichi to get ready as well." Ken thought as he searched around for his brother.
It was then that he noticed a pair chatting away on the edge of the bench, as if no one else was present.
'T-That hound dog!' He cursed inwardly.
When he saw both Miho and Daichi deep in conversation, Ken almost blew his top. Yes he had mentioned this was the best time to talk to her, but not in the first damn inning.
He briefly looked at the Head Coach to see if he had noticed, only to let out a sigh of relief in the next moment. The coach had his eyes locked onto the field for the moment.
Without wasting any time, Ken scuttled over to Daichi and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Hey. Bro… Maybe you should go get ready." As he said this, he dug his fingers deeper into the teens shoulder.
Daichi paled seeing the scary expression of his big bro.
DONG!
Their silent conversation was cut short as the sound of the metal bat smacking the ball resonated on the field.
Masayuki managed to thread a hit along the ground, directly into the outfield. Thanks to the right outfielder being closer infield, Riku was forced to stop on 3rd base.
"Nice hit Captain!"
As Daichi made his way onto the field, Masayuki settled into place on first base, his eyes on the two freshman. He found it a little funny that their 3 most dangerous batters were all debuting at the National level.
Not to mention that 2 of them were brothers and the other was on the same High School team. Despite this, he didn't feel any less confident in their abilities.
"Oi, ya basturd."
Masayuki frowned as he turned to the source of the broken Japanese words behind him.
He saw a player with a scar on his nose glaring at him with his tongue sticking out. It was clear at a glance that the guy was trying to get a rise out of him, however he'd experienced much worse trash talking throughout his years.
"Are those the only Japanese words you know?" Masayuki replied with a grin, before completely ignoring him.
"Heh. I secksu you Mom, basturd."
"PFFT"
Masayuki could barely make out the terrible pronunciation of Japanese, yet it's contents made him almost burst out into laughter.
DING!
"Ah crap!"
While he was distracted, Hiroki had hit a grounder towards the pitcher.
In no time, the pitcher threw the ball to 2nd base who then completed a throw to first.
"Out"
"Out!"
"Argh double play…"
Ken held his head in his hands as he saw their great position quickly get reversed. Hiroki was probably the one most affected by the bad play as he made his way slowly back to the dugout with a grave expression.
"Don't mind." Chris said, patting the teen on the back.
However, when Masayuki descended the stairs, Coach Takashi spoke up.
"I don't know what you were doing on first base, but don't let it happen again."
His words were stern and fierce, causing some confusion to the other players. However, Masayuki accepted these words and responded with a yes sir.
"What was that about?" Ken asked as the captain approached.
"Ugh." Masayuki groaned in response, feeling a little frustrated with himself.
Instead of answering Ken, he turned to the players and spoke up.
"If you ever get to 1st base this game… Ignore the 1st baseman. That's all I'll say."
After saying so, he returned to the bench and sat down, clearly disappointed.
Ken whipped his head around to the player on 1st base and instantly recognized the guy who had flipped him off yesterday when he was on the bus.
'Is that guy the kind of person who tries to get under your skin?' Ken thought, eyeing him warily.
Meanwhile, Daichi had already made his way into the batters box. Unlike Hiroki who had seemed frazzled earlier, he was full of fighting spirit.
"Batting 4th, Catcher, Daichi."
"Looks like he's fired up." Chris said as he let out a short whistle of appreciation.